Eamon Espey was born in Boston, MA in 1977. In 2002 he moved to New York to attain a Bachelors Degree in Cartooning from the School of Visual Arts. Around that time he began self-publishing the comic series Wormdye and co-founded Mount Olympus Society. His work has appeared in Critical Citadel, Free Radicals, and the Spitting Anorexic. Today Eamon lives and works in Baltimore, MD.
"It's tough for authors to figure out what to do at a graphic novel
reading: Do you show slides? Talk about the book? Jump straight to
the Q&A? Cartoonist Eamon Espey presents a unique solution: a
shadow puppet show adapting a chapter of his newest book, Songs of
the Abyss, that is "based on the true story of a man that has often
been referred to as 'the last wild Indian.'" The rest of Songs of
the Abyss features Egyptian gods, biblical figures, and the
revelation of Santa Claus's true job: agent of Satan." - The
Stranger
"For the release of his newest book, Songs of the Abyss, Espey
joined forces with Baltimore puppeteer Lisa Krause to create a
puppet show adaptation of one of the book's stories, "Ishi's
Brain." The apocalyptic tale of alien invasion, pagan worship, and
mountain goat abduction was presented using every type of puppetry
possible. These included shadow puppets, marionettes, and finally
Espey himself donning a papier-mâché skull mask as the story's main
character/demon. With zero speaking or text the story's narrative
was slightly hard to follow, but the haunting tone of the visuals
and the eerie soundtrack were spot on. Espey is a master of
meticulousness, though none of his highly-detailed comics come off
as visually overwhelming or cluttered." - CityArts Seattle"Espey's
newest book, Songs of the Abyss, is a masterwork... ...I was
delighted to find that the captions of the pieces were kept from us
until the end of the book, to be used as a sort of a visual
glossary. This encourages the reader to let go of the impulse
toward narrative and immediate meaning-making, and instead allows
one to engage with the works in more of a state of shocked reverie.
Still, fun to go back afterwards and pin Espey's words to his
pictures. I highly encourage everyone to pick up a copy." -
Phantasmaphile"We must be careful in what we create, because our
creations can quickly get out of our control. The abyss awaits us
all, Espey points out, and it will lay waste to every institution.
He suggests not necessarily that there's a heaven for the just, but
that goodness and love are their own forms of transcendence. Even
with his annotations, this book is open to all sorts of
interpretations, but there's no question that it demands that the
reader work to put together the images and follow the nightmare
logic that he so expertly crafted." - The Comics Journal"This
gorgeously rendered, wordless book of pen-and-ink drawings begins
with the Egyptian story of the creation of the world as we see Atum
masturbating into his own mouth and vomiting out Tefnut and Shu as
progeny. As these two figures wander away from their creator, Atum
pulls out his eye and throws it as far as he can, until it finds
them. When it does, he weeps and creates the first human. From
here, the story migrates to the biblical tale of Adam and Eve and
Cain and Abel (though, here, they are Tommy and Marco, recurrent
characters in Espey's work)... ...The result is stunning and should
put Espey on the level with almost any comic artist working
today--and not just in Baltimore." - City Paper"The element that
holds it all together is, again, Espey's striking artistic ability.
In spite of the strange and often disturbing subject matter
portrayed, the most powerful and resonant dimension of Songs of the
Abyss is the artful draftsmanship and the brilliant execution of
it. There is an hypnotic cumulative effect to it, an almost
narcotic sensory response to the sustained visual assault. The book
alternates between traditional six panel pages, full page
illustrations, and many permutations in between; despite it's own
abstract obliqueness, it unfolds in an oddly fluid way, with a
logic that resonates from the deepest recesses of the human id." -
IndieReader
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